Council approves housing plan after clash

Aguirre contends state law not met

A five-year plan designed to show how San Diego intends to meet the housing needs of residents, including the poorest families, was approved yesterday by the City Council after a heated exchange with City Attorney Michael Aguirre, who warned that the document does not comply with the law.

The debate between Aguirre and several council members ultimately became so acrimonious that Council President Scott Peters called a five-minute break.

Councilman Jim Madaffer, who has clashed with Aguirre in the past, called him “a disgrace to the city,” and Councilwoman Toni Atkins took him to task for waiting until late Monday to deliver the opinion.

At issue was the city's Housing Element, a state-mandated plan that must be prepared every five years to demonstrate how jurisdictions intend to address housing needs. It comes amid a housing emergency repeatedly declared by the council over the past several years.

The new plan acknowledges shortcomings in meeting all the city's housing needs but also concludes that San Diego has enough land zoned for high-density housing to provide its fair share of units affordable to low-income households.

Jim Waring, who oversees housing and economic development for Mayor Jerry Sanders, defended the city's effort. He pointed out that the city had received a letter yesterday from the state Housing and Community Development Department stating that San Diego's draft plan complies with state law.

As part of the required plan, San Diego must show that it can produce 45,741 additional housing units by 2010. Of that total, more than 18,000 need to be affordable to low-income households. However, state law does not require that the units actually be built, only that the city demonstrate it has land zoned to meet those goals.

Atkins sought to put the city's efforts to date in a positive light, pointing to successes in using state bond money to build affordable housing, persuading the downtown redevelopment agency to allocate more money toward low-income housing construction, and passage of a law requiring that builders contribute to the development of more low-cost units.

Her comments came after strong remarks from affordable-housing advocates, who lambasted the plan as a failure and one that violates at least a dozen state requirements.

“I can't say I see . . . that anything will change in the next five years if you adopt this housing element,” said Richard Lawrence, who heads the San Diego Affordable Housing Coalition. “If we do not find the revenue, if we do not find new approaches, those folks who are out there will be down here in numbers you have never seen before, telling you tomorrow of the failure you executed today.”

In addition to setting housing production goals, the plan addresses how the city will meet the needs of specific groups, including students, the elderly, disabled individuals, military personnel and the homeless. It also discusses overcoming obstacles to development, such as parking and building height requirements and other land-use regulations.

The plan, however, falls far short of what state law requires, states the opinion issued by Aguirre's office. In short, concludes the memo, the document “does not provide a realistic and achievable means of meeting the city's affordable housing needs. It is contrary to everything the City Council has emphasized in its declaration of a continuing state of housing emergency over the last several years.”

Aguirre reminded the council that it must be vigilant in obeying the law, noting the city's other decisions in past years that led to sanctions from outside agencies over storm drains and water, sewer and pension systems.

“It's a shame in a city that should be working toward shared goals that we get into these kinds of confrontations that do not move forward any valid interests of the city of San Diego,” Waring said after yesterday's hearing.